


331 m/s

by Rehearsal_Dweller



Series: The Speed of Sound [1]
Category: The Heroes of Olympus - Rick Riordan, The Kane Chronicles - Rick Riordan
Genre: M/M
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2014-11-13
Updated: 2014-11-13
Packaged: 2018-02-25 05:18:57
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 1,491
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/2609924
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/Rehearsal_Dweller/pseuds/Rehearsal_Dweller
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>Sound travels, and William Solace has friends he probably shouldn't know at all.</p>
<p>(the speed of sound)</p>
            </blockquote>





	331 m/s

**Author's Note:**

> This follows up to the Speed of Light series directly, so it likely won't make much sense at all unless you've read those. But it's worth it, reading those, because they're cute.  
> This one is free of sound or light puns (at least intentional ones), made up for by the kind of absurd amount of math that went into the first sentence.  
> In other news, I'm firmly of the opinion that Will Solace and Jaz Anderson should be friends. So I made them friends.

On a dry, seventy degree day at sea level, sound waves travel through the air at 343 m/s. That means that, were there nothing in the way to dissipate or absorb the sound, it would take roughly 3.7987 hours for a scream of terror to travel from a Manhattan alley to a San Francisco street.

“Aisling,” Nico blurted.

“What?” replied Frank, confused.

“Ash – didn’t you hear her?” asked Nico. “She’s –“ he glanced around. “- oh, gods. I have to go.”

And go he did, before Frank even had a chance to ask where to.

“Will!” Nico shouted before he’d even fully materialised. “Where’s Shadow?”

Melody frowned at him. “Will and UV are out today. They were going to go into the city for an adventure, I think? Ashie’s been feeling a bit cooped up.”

“Where?” Nico asked, frantic.

“I don’t know. Why? Is something wrong?” said Melody.

“Yes. No – maybe? I heard Asha scream,” Nico answered.

“But you were at Camp Jupiter,” Melody replied, frowning.

“Day trip to San Francisco, actually,” said Nico, “but more or less.”

Jonas, the 10-year-old Athena Cabin boy Melody was patching up, frowned. “Sound can’t carry that far. And even if it could, it’d reach you… uh, four hours late.”

“Then I’m four hours late. But I know it was Aisling.”

\--

“I’m sorry, I can’t find them. It’s like there’s something blocking them.”

Nico growled and stormed out of the cabin. Will and Aisling had been gone since early yesterday morning, and sometime midday something _happened_ and now nobody knew where they were.

He didn’t realise he’d wandered all the way back to his cabin until he found himself lying facedown on his own bed.

“Nico?” Annabeth said, tapping on the doorframe. “Are you alright?”

Nico grumbled into his pillow.

Annabeth sat down next to him. “Could you tell me what actually happened? Nobody’s entirely sure of anything but that you’re storming around and scaring the newer campers.”

Nico rolled over. “Aisling and Will are missing, but I can’t figure out where they were, let alone where they are now.”

“I’m so sorry,” said Annabeth. Nico sighed. “Is there anything I can do to help?”

Nico sighed again. “Just look.”

\--

“Will!”

Aisling had woken with a start, sitting up and breathing heavily.

“Asha, sweet, it’s alright,” Will said, tucking her hair behind her ear and pressing a kiss to her forehead. “We’re alright. I’m here.”

“Where are we?” Aisling asked, looking around. “This isn’t Camp or Miss Sally’s.”

“I had to call for help from a friend,” Will admitted.

“What friend?” Aisling persisted.

“Oh, she’s awake!” a girl’s voice said, somewhere behind Will. She stepped into Aisling’s line of sight and waved. “I’m Jaz. Will and I are study-buddies.”

Aisling tipped her head to one side, looking from Jaz to Will and back. “Sister?”

Will laughed. “No, no, we’re not related.”

Aisling’s eyes narrowed. “Are you sure?”

“Pretty sure,” said Jaz, grinning. “Now, how do you feel?”

Aisling frowned, taking stock. Now that she thought about it, she was very aware of her ribs, and her legs hurt rather a lot. She wasn’t immediately certain how to articulate this, but seven months living in a cabin full of healers were not for nothing. “Like crap.”

“Aisling Brigid Day,” Will said, half shocked, half admonitory.

Jaz laughed. “A little more descriptive, please.”

“My legs hurt and my ribs hurt,” reported Aisling. “And Will is sitting on my hand.”

Will jumped up, and Aisling giggled. “Anything else, Ash?”

“I – my head –“ Aisling started, a little confused.

“You screamed,” Will remembered. “Do you think –“

“Nico’s in California,” said Aisling. “I’ve never done it that far.”

“I think I’m missing something,” said Jaz. “What are you two talking about?”

“UV can do this crazy sonic voice-flingy thing,” Will said.  
“You’re so good at explaining the technical details, Will,” Aisling interrupted, rolling her eyes.

“ – doing it over long distances is harder,” continued Will, “but it could’ve reached our fr- my – Nico. Theoretically.”

“Huh. Do you think you should call him? Tell him you’re alright?”

“Nah,” said Will. “The odds he actually heard it are too slim.”

\--

“You said you heard her scream, right?” asked Annabeth. Nico nodded. Annabeth scribbled something in her notebook. “What time, about?”

Nico squeezed his eyes shut, trying to remember. “Uh, about four, maybe?”

“Alright,” said Annabeth, making another note. “So given that it would take about three hours and forty-seven minutes for Aisling’s voice to reach you, what ever happened went on about noon, your time. Which, accounting for the time change, means it was sometime around three when they were – er, attacked, presumably.”

“I guess,” Nico said dully. He didn’t particularly want to think about Will and Ash being attacked, but he couldn’t deny that it was the most likely reason for their dropping off the earth. “How is this going to help?”

“Well, I wouldn’t expect you to know, given your special licence to disappear whenever the whim strikes you, but for day trips like this the rest of us have to leave a plan at the big house,” Annabeth explained. She pulled a piece of paper out of the back of her notebook. “So by figuring out when they were attacked, we can check where they were supposed to be and then we’ll actually have a starting point for our search.”

“Oh,” said Nico, sitting up. “I wouldn’t have thought of that.”

“That’s why you have me.”

“You’re a godsend, Annie.”

“I know. Now let’s find your baby sister.”

\--

“So where are we, exactly?” Aisling asked, once all of her injuries had been tended to.

Will flopped back onto the bed next hers. “Well, it’s kind of like Camp for kids like Jaz.”

“So she’s not a half-blood?”

“Nope.”

“But she _is_ magic.”

“Yep.”

“So is she a monster?”

Will laughed. “No, she’s not a monster. She’s just a girl. She and her friends are all mortals with an affinity for magic.”

“Kind of like Cabin 20?” Aisling asked.

“Kind of,” Will replied. “Only they’re 100% mortal, and their magic’s not like ours.”

“How’s that?”

“They’re not Greek,” said Will with a shrug. “Or Roman,” he added before Aisling could ask. “Jaz and I don’t talk about it much, but we’ve got a theory that there are a lot more gods out there than the ones we deal with. Jazzy can trace her family back to Ancient Egypt. But she said that her friends who came to help us had never seen a monster like the one that got us, and I hadn’t either. So I think it was from another mythology entirely.”

“That’s – kinda scary,” Aisling admitted. “But cool. Makes sense, really.”

Will grinned. He was about to respond when one of the house’s young residents burst into the room.

“A creepy guy with a big black dog just showed up at our front door with a blonde girl in an orange t-shirt,” the boy announced. “Jaz sent me for you.”

Will and Aisling looked at each other. “ _Nico_.”

Will jumped up and scooped up his sister, whose legs were not in any shape to be supporting her weight, and took off down the hall.

Sure enough, when they got downstairs, they found Annabeth Chase and Nico di Angelo sitting on a couch and chatting with Walt and Jaz, while Mrs O’Leary the hellhound ran around just outside the window.

Nico didn’t look happy.

Will dropped the 9-year-old onto his boyfriend’s lap and sat down next to them, pretending he hadn’t noticed. “Hey, Nico. I thought you were in California.”

“I _was_ ,” said Nico.

“We got chased by a monster,” Aisling told him. “I didn’t mean to scream.”

Nico’s expression softened. “I’m not upset because I got pulled away from my visit. I thought you were hurt, and neither of you thought to send an IM.”

Will had the good sense to look ashamed.

Aisling, being nine, did not. “Will said you pro’lly didn’t hear me scream, so we oughtn’t to bother you.”

Nico gave Will a Look.

“Sorry,” said Will.

“Yeah, you should be,” said Nico. “Next time try _not_ to scare the pants off me.”

“What if –“

“ _Will!”_

Annabeth stifled a giggle.

“We’re going to go home now, aren’t we?” Aisling asked, ignoring her brothers.

“That was the plan,” Annabeth replied.

Aisling turned to Jaz. “Can we visit again sometime? When I’m not unconscious?”

Jaz frowned. “I’m not sure that’d be allowed, but maybe.”

“That sounds good,” Aisling said, nodding. She held her arms out to Annabeth. “Help me?”

Annabeth pulled Aisling up. She nodded to Jaz. “Nice chatting with you. I’ll take these guys off your hands.”

Jaz smiled. “They didn’t cause _too_ much trouble. Don’t worry.”

“Oh, thanks,” said Will.

Nico shook hands with Walt. “See you around.”

As they left, Aisling (who was being carried piggyback by Annabeth) leaned over to Nico. “Do you and Walt know each other, too?”

“Yeah,” said Nico.

“How?”

“It’s… complicated.”


End file.
